Resident Evil 4: Aftershock
by Valkyrie Redfield
Summary: It is a year after the rescue of Ashley, the President's Daughter. Leon lived by himself and frequently thought of Claire, the girl who helped him survive Raccoon City. Where was she? And what did his nightmare mean? Was it only a nightmare?


This takes place after Resident Evil 4: Leon's Companion

_"Leon!"_

_"Claire! No!" Leon tried to grab Claire's hand as she fell off the side of the cliff. He managed to grab her hand, but both of their hands had been sweaty from clutching onto their weapons tightly. Her hand slipped and he could only watch her as she disappeared into the darkness of..._

"CLAIRE!" Leon screamed as he shot up into a sitting position. He let out heavy breaths as sweat dripped down his forehead. He looked around, wiping the sweat from his forehead and letting out a sigh of relief. "It was only a nightmare..." He closed his eyes, shaking his head and putting his face in his hands. "Just a horrible... horrible nightmare..."

Claire...

His mind went back to when they went their seperate ways... after they rescued the President's daughter, Ashley. They had met new friends... and an old enemy. And Chris... he was alive again, to both Claire's and Leon's relief. Claire hadn't been the same since her brother died... she had been more distant, and more protective than Leon had ever seen her. She had become an assassin for the government, her entire identity had been deminished to only a barcode on her wrist. Her entire existance was gone from history. But she had come to him, to say goodbye. He was heartbroken when he found out that he would have to forget about her ever having been in his life. Easier said than done. Expecially when he loved her. She explained that one of the reasons she went through with it, was to keep from being tracked by Wesker. Who, some how, managed to survive his latest fatal wounds.

Claire had been out training when she got a distress signal from Chris' walkie-talkie type phone. She followed the tracer to the very last Umbrella Facility, only to find a severely wounded Chris. No one else was in sight. He died in her arms. Before she could even do anything, Wesker came out of nowhere and slammed a knife down at her. She reacted too late. The blade sliced down her eye, permanently damaging it and blinding her. She fought Wesker off and took Chris away and buried him. Where, later, Wesker dug him up and somehow brought him back to life... perfectly. But there was one thing about it... Chris was under his enemy's control.

Wesker had sent Chris to haunt Claire... make her mentally unstable. Under the control, Chris blamed his sister for his death, claimed that she didn't care for him, stabbed Leon, and later, shot her through the heart. She somehow survived, and Chris snapped back to reality.

Claire had found Leon, and saved him from certain death.

She told him everything...

The people of the village Leon was sent to... There was something strange about them. They looked normal enough, and acted normal enough... until they attacked. Leon and Claire compared them to the Zombies back at Raccoon City. Instead of rotting flesh, their skin seemed unharmed. Instead of eternal hunger, they had a wish to kill anything unlike them. Instead of only animalistic instincts, they used weapons, and came up with easier ways to get to their prey.

The church bells...

Every time they ring, the villagers stop what they are doing and leave. Could it be a call of some sort? If so... why? Where do they go? And to whom?

Leon's thoughts were interrupted by his alarm clock. He slapped the off button almost sloppily. Sherry Birkin, who was now 16, had somehow managed to find his phonenumber and called him. She wanted to see him and Claire again, but he had to explain to her that Claire 'died'. She was rather upset. He wished he could have told her the truth, but the least people who knew that Claire was still alive... the better. Either way, he had agreed to meet her at a cafe. After Claire and Leon had left Raccoon City with her, they had made sure she went to a nice family, since the two couldn't really take care of her.

Yawning, he got out of bed, wearing long black pants and no shirt. He had scars almost all over him, along with a few bullet scars. He and Claire had literally been through Hell and back. He threw a white shirt on and changed into some black jeans. He wondered what Sherry had been doing with herself all those years. While he thought, he got his wallet and carkeys and went outside to his black car. Getting in, he thought about his nightmare again. He could only hope that Claire was alright... wherever she was.

Leon soon came up to the cafe he was supposed to met Sherry at. Getting out and approaching it, he could see a girl about sixteen sitting at a table. She had short blonde hair... and a red headband. He smiled slightly. Just how he remembered her hairstyle. As soon as the girl caught sight of him, she shot up and hugged him tightly.

"Leon!" she exclaimed, hugging him even more tightly. "I missed you so much!" She looked up at him, then sighed heavily, looking to his side as if thinking Claire would be standing at his side. She pulled away from the hug, wiping a few tears from her eyes. Claire had been like a mother to her, helping her escape Raccoon City when her father, William Birkin, had used the G-Virus on himself. She took care of her...

Leon saw the pain in her eyes and sighed, hugging her. "I know... I miss her too..." he rubbed her back a little. He did miss her... not a day went by that he didn't think about her.

"Leon..." Sherry finally said after a few long moments of silence. Pulling away, the young girl looked up at him. She had thought about him and Claire ever since they had left her with some very nice people. She understood why they had to leave her, and knew that it had been for the better. She just wished that she could have seen Claire once more...  
When she said his name, Leon knew that she was about to tell him why she had gone through the trouble of locating and calling him. He knew that it wasn't only because she wanted to see them again, but he couldn't figure out why. Looking down at her, he could the deep frown she had. "Sherry...?"  
"..." she looked away a little, trying to figure out how to put it... to say it... She closed her eyes and looked back to him. "My dad is alive..." she finally stated.  
Those four words hit him like a speeding semi. He had to hold onto a lamp post to keep himself from falling over when his knees gave out. He clutched his chest slightly, letting out a few, slow breaths. "W...what...!"  
"I don't know how... but he is... He knows where my foster family lives, and he's trying to take me back! I don't want to go!" she clung onto him tightly, sobbing lightly. She was scared that her father would take her away, since she was his daughter and he had rights... no matter how sick Leon and Sherry knew he was.  
"What does he look like...?" he asked slowly. He needed to know if he looked nomal, like he did before he used the G-Virus on himself, or if he was mutated. He had a good idea of how he was alive: Wesker. What if Wesker intended to re-establish Umbrella? Wesker would control it, and Birkin would be working for him. What if Wesker knew that Claire was still alive? He knew that Birkin would hate her severely... considering she killed him. What if they worked together to make something to-  
His heart sunk. He didn't know where she was. There was no way he could locate her and warn her that Birkin was alive! He then shook his head, looking at Sherry, seeing the worried look on her face.  
"Leon... you ok?" she asked him, worried. He had just stood there, staring blankly at nothing with a shocked look on his face... for at least three minutes.  
"Y...yeah... I'm ok..." he moved over to a table and sat down in the chair, his knees weak. This was insane.  
"I said he looks like he did before he infected himself..." she still looked at him, still worried about him.  
"I see... you can stay with me for awhile... we should tell your foster parents you'll be staying with me... and that they should stay with relatives for a little while... who knows what your father may do to them..." He sighed, standing up. His knees felt stronger after sitting down.  
She nodded. "Yeah..." she smiled faintly.

He took her hand with a heavy sigh. How was he going to warn Claire now that he had to protect Sherry? It then struck him. Chris! He had told Chris about Claire being held prisoner on Rockfort Island, and Chris ended up saving her then... maybe he could find her this time. He looked to Sherry. "I'll drive you, just tell me where I need to go."  
The girl nodded once more, then froze, seeming to double-take. She took her hand out of Leon's, turning around. "It's Claire! She's alive!"  
"Wha...?" he turned around, looking at her, blinking. "What do you mean...?" She can't have seen her... what would she be doing here? out in the open, even... The only thing he could think of was that she found something about about Wesker... or maybe even a new Umbrella... He frowned. Either way, seeing her wasn't a good thing.   
In just a little while of his thinking, the young girl was gone from his side, pursuing the 'aparition' of the woman who saved her life and protected her.  
"Dammit... Sherry!" he called to her, trying to follow after her.  
"Claire!" Sherry ran towards the woman who she was positive was Claire. She ducked through the crowd, hearing Leon call to her. She couldn't go back. Not now that she was so close to catching up to her.  
"...?" the woman glanced over her shoulder, hearing someone yelling. Her blue eyes scanned the crowd, seeing a girl running towards her. Her eyes widened slightly, her brown hair falling in her face slightly. "oh no..." She slipped through the crowd, trying to keep from being seen.  
Leon spotted the woman. It _was_ Claire! He knew he had to stop Sherry, Claire's cover couldn't be blown, and Sherry couldn't know the truth about her, and what she had been doing all these years. "Sherry! Come back!" Leon yelled at her.   
A gunshot suddenly rang throughout the crowded downtown area. Everyone screamed and ducked, their hands over their heads. After the sound of the shot died down, they looked around to see who was shot.   
Sherry screamed, clasping her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide. She would have been the one who was shot, if someone hadn't gotten in the way. She looked up to see Claire standing over her, wincing. "C...Claire...!"  
She smiled lightly, wincing again. "H...hey, Sher..."


End file.
